Durbin to oppose Mukasey

By Daniel W. Reilly

10/31/07 03:01 PM EDT

Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) announced Wednesday he would not support the nomination of Michael Mukasey for Attorney General because of Mukasey’s refusal to declare the "waterboarding" interrogation technique as torture.

“I cannot support this nomination based on the letter he wrote yesterday,” said Durbin, referring to a 170-page letter Mukasey wrote clarifying some of his positions, where he did not definitively say “waterboarding” was torture.

Durbin is also a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is expected to vote on Muksaey’s nomination on Nov. 6.

Mukasey, a retired federal judge, has faced growing Democratic opposition because of the issue.

The uproar has left the nomination—once considered to be a sure thing—in serious jeopardy. Durbin said he was unsure if Mukasey had enough votes to even pass out of the committee.

Durbin said Mukasey was “sailing along” through the confirmation process before his refusal to answer the water-boarding question.

While Durbin said he has not yet polled his Democratic colleagues as to where they stand on Mukasey, a senior Democrat on the committee told the Crypt yesterday: “If we had a vote in the committee right now, he wouldn’t make it through.”